Wrong Floating Castle
by o realisticFantasy o
Summary: Kirito didn't mean to fall off of Aincrad, so when he ends up on a flying machine with a certain three duelists the first thing he wants to do is go back. But they insist that they have important business at the Castle of Dark Illusions. Two castles, two dimensions, one virtual world.
1. Chapter 1: Falling

**This takes place sometime after episode seven of SAO and during episode three of the legendary heroes arc. Since I'm starting mid-series there's no exposition, as per usual in my writing. Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 1: Falling

It all happened so fast.

One second he was fighting off a PKer, the next, he was falling in open air, watching as everything he cared about got farther and farther away.

Today wasn't meant to go like this.

It was supposed to be a good day, one meant to be spent leveling and maybe buying something nice for Asuna. Instead, it had been spent fighting for his life a little more desperately than usual and falling off the side of the goddamn floating castle. What luck!

Sarcasm aside, he needed to do something before he shattered into shards of light. Actually, shouldn't that have happened by now? No one fell off Aincrad and survived. It was unheard of. Players died before they fell long enough to reach the next floor down. So why was he still alive?

Deciding not to look a gift horse in the mouth, Kirito tried to angle his body so he would drift back towards Aincrad, but found he was paralyzed. Right! When the PKer had knocked him over the edge he had stabbed him with something. It must have been a paralyzing agent. As a result he was unable to redirect his fall so that he'd land on a lower floor, or grab a teleport crystal to save himself, instead forced to watch as each floor flew past.

He passed floor fifty and wondered if Lizbeth would look out her window and see him. Probably not.

Aincrad was a big place, and it took a long time to pass just a single floor. With any luck (not that he'd had much today) the paralysis would wear off before he reached the first floor. Whatever was allowing him to survive wouldn't be much help if he missed the castle.

Forty-nine…forty-eight…forty-seven…

He struggled against the paralysis, but still he couldn't even move a pinky.

Forty-six…forty-five…forty-four…

An ordinary person would be discouraged and give up at this point, but not Kirito. He had things to do, people to get back to. He was determined.

Forty-three…forty-two…forty-one…

Kirito lost track of the floors as he focused solely on breaking through the paralysis. He refused to let this chance he had been given to survive pass by just because he couldn't move. If he could just move his right hand he might be able to navigate the menu and get a teleport crystal ready.

More and more floors were passing by in his peripheral vision as he struggled. He was running out of time. Like he was the sand in an hour glass, he was falling ever closer to the bottom.

A finger twitched. Yes! Finally! He tried to do it again but failed. Looks like this was going to take more work.

He glanced back at the castle to try to gauge how far he'd fallen. Was that floor twenty-seven? He could recognize that fateful floor anywhere. The floor where his friends were slaughtered haunted him. But now wasn't the time to grieve over the deaths of the Moonlit Black Cats. If he wasted any time on that he'd end up joining them.

Well, at least he had a count again.

Twenty-six…twenty-five…twenty-four…

At this point he was beginning to panic. Over half of his time was gone and the paralysis _still wasn't wearing off_. He was getting desperate.

Twenty-three…twenty-two…twenty-one…

His desperation turned out to be a blessing because it fueled his efforts to break free. This time he was able to get his entire hand to move! He opened his menu.

Twenty…nineteen…eighteen…

It took a few floors before he was able to move his hand again, but he managed to click a few buttons and access his crystal menu. Just one more click to materialize one—

Seventeen…sixteen…

There! He clicked the menu and the crystal appeared in his hand. His very paralyzed, loose hand. He dropped the crystal.

Fifteen…fourteen…

His breath caught. He couldn't believe he had just done that. That was his last teleport crystal! What was he going to do?!

Thirteen…twelve…

There was still a chance he could try to land back on the castle if he could control his fall. He was getting better at fighting the paralysis now. Maybe it was wearing off? He leaned to one side to try to change direction.

Eleven…ten…

He was going to wrong way. With some difficulty he turned himself to drift back towards the castle.

Nine…eight…

He could only hope the fall damage wouldn't kill him.

Seven…

He looked up at his health bar. The fight with the PKer had left him in the low green, but it appeared there was a bleeding effect. It ticked down to yellow.

Six…

He wasn't far now. He could see the leaves on the trees he was getting so close.

Five…

He bounced off the wall between floors. His HP took a hit, taking another eighth of his health. He didn't like his chances.

Four…

Hitting the wall sent him careening away from the castle in a wild spin. Even though he was falling, he was having a hard time telling which way was up.

Three…

He was panicking. He was panicking and he didn't know which way was up and his health was falling to dangerous levels and he didn't know how to fix any of it.

Two…

In his panic he didn't notice the paralysis wear off. Didn't take advantage of the fact that he could now materialize a healing potion or crystal and redirect his fall to solid ground.

One…

 _I'm sorry Asuna…Klein…_

Tears were streaming from his eyes. He didn't know if they were from the wind or from crying, but it's not like it mattered. No one could see him to judge now.

He had missed the castle.

* * *

"Uh this is your captain speaking. If you direct your attention to the left side of our aircraft you can see that freaky floatin' castle, some clouds, and what appears to be a swarm of ferocious flying monsters ready to devour us!" What started calm enough ended in a panicky shout.

"Wait, do you see that?"

"You're going to have to be more specific Yugi, there's a lot of things flying around out here." A somewhat snarky feminine voice retorted.

"It's not flying, it—there! Someone is falling!" The second voice, Yugi, apparently, returned.

"I got it. Go, Harpy Lady! Catch the falling person!"

* * *

The paralysis had worn off completely now, too little too late. Kirito used his newly functioning dexterity to right himself, swaying to and fro in the air. He wondered what he was supposed to do now. Was he going to fall forever? He'd rather die than endure nothing but falling until the game ended. Who knew how mad he would go in that time.

Maybe he should hold off on using that healing potion…

The was a low hum, like a distant sound of roaring that he could hear over the rush of wind flying past his ears. Was he going mad already? Was he imagining things? It looked like there was something going on below him. As if he wasn't the only thing below Aincrad. As he continued to fall the muddled mess below him sharpened into individual shapes. What kinds of monsters were those?

Countless monsters swarmed in the sky, and he was headed straight for them. Winged lions, giant bugs, dragons and even some wingless serpents spiraled about. He'd never seen any of them before. Maybe this was where scrapped ideas went? Whatever the case, if they were monsters, he could fight them.

He cracked his knuckles (or would have, if that was something one could do in SAO. Alas; there were no bones under a player's wireframe to crack) in anticipation; he'd never fought an aerial battle before. It might be fun. It couldn't be that hard, right?

Now would be the perfect time to test out his dual wielding skill, but he didn't have the time it would take to equip a second sword. In seconds he was upon them.

He hacked and slashed and cut into everything around him, trying to kill everything within reach before they had a chance to notice him. He had less maneuverability in the air and wouldn't be able to dodge any of their attacks.

A gust of wind blew, blowing him off course from the monster he was targeting. His sword skill missed as a result, alerting the giant bug creature to his presence. It screeched and swatted him away with a pincher, and he was sent tumbling away without any semblance of control. His health bar was his only visual anchor as the world whirled around him. It had gone down even farther from both the bleeding effect from before and the swat from the bug just now, leaving him in the low yellow zone. His battle healing skill was being countered by the bleed, so it was no use to him now.

He realized that he didn't want to die, even if he spent the rest of the game falling. His survival instinct was too strong.

He fumbled around for a potion, but with the world spinning about as it was he couldn't even open his menu. He watched with frustrated horror as his health clipped down to red.

Suddenly something slammed into him from the side and his health cut itself in half. The world had stopped spinning now, but whatever had run into him had grabbed him, immobilizing his arms. He could only hang in its grasp and revel in the fact that he was no longer falling. He wondered where it would take him. Was there stable ground somewhere?

A serpent tried to snap at him, but the monster holding him clawed it away. It ducked and weaved around other monsters as they too tried to attack them. It was not a smooth ride for Kirito, but at least he wasn't falling. With a cry the monster charged through the throng of beasts, and Kirito saw where they were headed. Was that an airplane? Since when were planes in SAO?

It looked like there were other players on the plane, too. He was saved! One of them must have been a beast tamer and had their tamed monster catch him. With this plane, he could go back to Aincrad! Heck, with a plane he could go to any floor he wanted, even ones that hadn't been unlocked yet.

When they reached the plane he was unceremoniously dropped on his butt. He didn't care though. All he cared about was getting that health potion. Now that his hands were free he hurriedly swiped down, opening his menu and clicking through the item inventory before finally materializing the small bottle. He downed it instantly, watching with no small amount of relief as the bleeding effect was negated and his health gradually started increasing again. His battle healing started working again, aiding the potion in getting him back to the yellow zone. When at last it inched back to green he looked up at his surroundings.

The three strangers were watching him curiously. Seeing him look up, the shortest one stepped forward. "Are you okay?"

Kirito sighed and stood up. "Now that the potion is doing its work, I'll be fine. What are you doing below Aincrad? Did you fall too?" The three looked confused.

"Pal, we're from the ground!" The one in the barbarian-looking outfit (Kirito hadn't know outfits like that existed in SAO until now) said proudly. "Uh, what's an Aincrad?"

 _'What's an Aincrad?_ ' Was this guy for real? Something wasn't quite right here…the odd clothes, the placement in an unlikely-to-be-found, dangerous place, and now the lack of knowledge of something fundamental to the game? He looked over their heads to be sure, and sure enough they didn't have cursors. This had Quest NPC written all over it.

"Is there something I can help you with?" Kirito said one of the commonly accepted lines that triggered quests. Maybe the reward was a ride to Aincrad, or a new area. In this case, the ground.

The short one seemed taken aback by the abrupt question. "Yes actually. We're trying to get to the Castle of Dark Illusions to rescue some friends. Would you help us? We don't have a lot of time."

Strange, Kirito wasn't getting a quest prompt. He gave the air in front of him where it should have been a funny look, but he nodded his head in acceptance anyway. Maybe this quest wasn't coded properly. It made sense if this was where scrapped ideas went. He could only hope there wouldn't be any bugs that could be life-threatening.

He turned away from the alleged NPCs, watching the horde of monsters in case any tried to attack. Keeping a lookout was far more important than making smalltalk, and he didn't know how effective the others were at fending off attacks themselves.

While he was turned away the three duelists were talking quietly.

"Hey Mai, you think he's another beta tester?" Joey asked.

"I don't know. I didn't see any other virtual pods in the office I was in."

"I don't think so Joey, look his wrist!" Yugi pointed out, "He doesn't have a duel-disk!"

"That's weird…why would he play a game like this without a deck?"

"And what's with the bar over his head?" Mai asked.

"Maybe Kaiba was testing more than one method to play?" Yugi hypothesized.

He realized they were being rude. "We should probably introduce ourselves instead of talking about him behind his back. Come on."

Kirito had heard them talking and had to reevaluate his assumption that they were NPCs. Only players wondered about beta testers. And what was a duel disk? His eyes narrowed.

He turned around as the three duelists approached.

"Hi, I'm Yugi," the first one introduced himself.

"The name's Joey! And this is Mai." Joey was oblivious to Mai's glare; she could introduce _herself_ thank you very much.

"Kirito," he returned.

The flying machine shook, and they all fought to keep their balance. Yugi failed and fell back. A monster took advantage of the situation and attacked.

"Yugi look out!" Mai shouted.

Kirito lunged forward, sword drawn and sword skill charging up, but a small fairy came to Yugi's rescue first. She took the monster's attack instead of was thrown to the side. "Earu!"

Kirito destroyed the offending monster an instant later, much to the shock of a watching Joey and Mai. Was Kirito even another player? Or was he some kind of sentient duel monster?

A mage in a dark purple ensemble also arrived to aid Yugi, but seeing that the job was complete he returned to the battlefield—battlesky?—to fend off the other monsters.

"Swords of revealing light!" Yugi held up a card, of all things. To Kirito's shock glowing white swords materialized around the flying machine, creating a barrier that prevented all the monsters from reaching it.

"Yeah! That stopped those monsters cold!" Joey celebrated like their appearance wasn't strange at all.

Yugi cradled the little fairy in his hands. "Are you okay? Earu, say something." But the fairy only smiled, let out a small, relieved noise, and disintegrated into golden sparkles. Yugi fought back tears in despair. "No! She's been digitized."

Kirito watched with gritted teeth, his emotions in turmoil. He had already failed these people. He never wanted to see another person suffer through the death of someone—for even tamed beasts could be considered someone, if their AI was realistic enough—close ever again.

Anger set in; first anger at himself, then at the monsters flying around him. But he reeled his emotions in. Maybe he could help these people like he helped Silica.

"I've had _enough!_ " Yugi declared as Kirito approached. Before he could get any closer he was blinded by a bright light coming from the upside-down pyramid that he hadn't noticed Yugi wearing before.

When the light died down at first he didn't see any difference. _What was that?_ Then Yugi spoke and Kirito knew something was up. "Charge ahead, Joey!"

"Will do Yug!"

It was relatively smooth sailing until they hit something invisible. "Oh no, we've hit the magical barrier!"

… _Magical barrier?_ There was no magic in SAO! What kind of mess had he gotten himself into?

"Well if this ship lives up to its legend," Joey started from the helm, "then we should be able to pass right through it."

Kirito found himself questioning his reality. " _Pal, we're from the ground!" "What's an Aincrad?" "He doesn't have a duel-disk!" "I didn't see any more virtual pods in the office I was in." "Swords of revealing light!" "She's been digitized." "Oh no, we've hit the magical barrier!"_ None of this should be happening, but none of the others were batting an eye. What was going on?

First thing's first. "Magical barrier? There's no magic in Sword Art Online."

"I don't know what this Sword Art Online is that you're talking about, but you tell me what we're running into if it's not the magical barrier surrounding the Castle of Dark Illusions."

Kirito was starting to feel lightheaded. "Sword Art Online, the death game that trapped 10,000 players in a giant, floating steel castle where the only way out is to win. The game that we've been trapped in for over a year?"

"Kirito?" Yugi got his attention. "We're playing Kaiba's duel monsters adventure game, the first of it's kind. Are you sure you're okay?"

 _…What?_

* * *

 **A/N: You have no idea how much I wanted to say "derezzed" instead of "died" or "shattered" there. Especially when Yugi said that Earu was digitized. It's derezzed, darnit. My Tron nerdism must not be unleashed!**

 **There's a lot of different way I could go with this. I have a few things planned out, but even I don't know for sure where this will go! Maybe some suggestions would help, hint hint.**


	2. Chapter 2: The Second Castle

**Hey hey hey! I'm excited for this story like you wouldn't believe. Events might be a little familiar at first, especially considering I already used dialog straight from an episode, but it'll be all new soon enough. I want to make a cover too. I've never finished any fanart for these fandoms before, so this'll be interesting.**

 **Sooooo I'm back! After** _ **much**_ **brainstorming I think I know where I'm going to go with this story. I still say that anyone is welcome to use this idea as a jumpstart for their own story if they have more ideas of where they want it to go. I wanted to finish this by April, but obviously that didn't happen. Not even close. I had a hard time continuing this since I had so many ideas and that put me behind.**

 **Oh, also, I made a mistake last chapter. I said this took place between episodes seven and eight, and while it seemed convenient at the time, it also means that Kirito and Asuna are merely well-acquainted acquaintances. Maybe you could call them friends? But they're not together yet nor that comfortable around each other. The mistake was made when I said in the third paragraph or so that maybe Kirito'd buy something nice for Asuna. They're not far enough in their relationship for that. Forgive me? It's kind of too late to fix it now.**

 **Enough jibber jabber. On to the story!**

* * *

Chapter 2: The Second Castle

 _"Kirito?" Yugi got his attention. "We're playing Kaiba's Duel Monsters adventure game, the first of it's kind. Are you sure you're okay?"_

… _What?_

* * *

That couldn't be right. SAO was the first VR game. Kirito hadn't even heard of this other game.

"Kaiba's Duel Monsters adventure game?" He tried out the name for himself. Nope, still wasn't ringing any bells.

"Yep. It hasn't been released to the public yet. Mai's beta testing and we're here to rescue Kaiba and Mokuba." Yugi elaborated.

Kirito didn't know what to think. But whether they knew what SAO was or not, he knew Aincrad was up there, and they were standing on the very solution to his problem. "I'll still help you, but on one condition: when we're done here you fly this thing back up to Aincrad and drop me off."

"Watch out!" Before he could get an answer, a pillar of flame rushed past the helm of the ship. Kirito turned to see a dragon made of fire growling threateningly from its cave.

"A Salamandra!" Mai exclaimed. Yeah, sure, whatever that was. "Go, Harpy Lady!"

The monster that had saved Kirito appeared and attacked the flaming dragon, felling it in one hit.

"We're hit!" Joey announced, and the ship started to break apart. The column of flame had hit the wing when it passed the helm, setting it and the motors on fire. One of them exploded, jolting the ship and everyone on it.

Yugi held up another card. "Winged Guardian of the Fortress!" A blue dragon big enough for everyone to ride appeared, and Kirito had no choice but to get on or go down with the airship. He didn't know what was up with things appearing from cards, but he counted everyone as lucky that it worked.

The ship broke apart behind them as they flew away. There went his ride home. But then again, maybe he could ride one of these…card monster things.

Kirito finally got a look at their destination. It appeared to be a smaller, darker, more gnarled version of Aincrad, complete with a ring floating around it. They landed on the outskirts of the dark castle, finding themselves surrounded by great, shady trees.

"What on Earth? A floating castle with its own forest? Maybe Kaiba oughta spend more time in reality." Joey quipped.

Kirito said nothing, still a little overwhelmed by the revelation that somehow, he wasn't even in SAO anymore. But a forest around a floating castle? That was close enough to normal that he could keep his head on straight.

"Keep your guard up," Yugi warned.

Mai stopped and pointed, causing the others to stop as well. "Look, cocoons of evolution!"

Kirito looked in the direction she was pointing and his breath caught. Through the forest some distance away were three gargantuan cocoons infesting an even bigger tree. The cocoons were each large enough to contain a floor boss. If blood were a thing in the virtual world, it would have drained from Kirito's face. Was he going to have to fight three mid-bosses, if not floor bosses, at once?

"But why are they buzzing?"

"I don't think that's them, Joey." Mai responded. As if on cue, the buzzing intensified and a horde of wasp-looking monsters rose out of the trees.

"No problem," Joey smirked.

Kirito stayed on his guard, but waited to see how Joey handled the situation if he was so confident.

The blond held up another card, surprise, surprise. "Attack, Fierce Knight!" He commanded. A knight came forth, only for another creature to latch onto it, causing them both to shatter. "My knight…"

Kirito growled. There went another tamed beast. Although…Joey only seemed mildly upset. Maybe these card monsters regenerated?

"Man eaters," Yugi said in that oddly deep voice that he'd had since Earu fell, "This must be one huge bug nest."

Okay, waiting time was over. Without a word, Kirito leapt towards the nearest bug, sword out in front of him. The bug dissolved almost as soon as his blade pierced its carapace. How weak were these things? He landed neatly and leapt for the next one.

"Stand strong," Yugi commanded, then held up yet another card. "Go, Mirror Force!"

The wasp-like monster Kirito was going for burst into flames and he had to shield his face. All around him the rest of the creatures were burning as they fell to the ground. He landed sloppily and rolled out of the way of a fireball, hurriedly making his way back to the group. His arm felt hot, and he looked down to see the sleeve he had blocked his face with was on fire. He smothered it with his gloved hand before he could take fire damage.

He turned to Yugi, scowling. "If I'm going to fight with you, I need to know I can rely on you to differentiate between friend and foe when you're attacking."

"Sorry Kirito." Yugi looked sincere, so Kirito let it go. Still, now the forest was on fire. It was time to move.

"The fire!" Mai gasped. "It's disturbing the cocoons! They're hatching!"

Oh, shit.

True to Mai's word, the cocoons were indeed splitting open. Giant green moths emerged and began flying away from the fire. Towards them.

"There's no way we're going to be able to take down that many Great Moths!" Joey exclaimed.

Kirito steeled himself and readied to fight them, despite what Joey thought. So far, all the monsters in this new game had been weak, each going down in just one hit. Maybe these so-called Great Moths would be the same?

"No, it can be done, Joey. With these!" Yugi held up two more cards. A giant turtle appeared…with a catapult on it? Along with a brown fuzzy creature. Kirito looked between the two and the moths coming for them. Those were going to defeat the moths?

…Right.

* * *

High, high above them, Asuna was checking her friends list. It was almost time for the next boss raid and no one had seen Kirito anywhere. Going through the list of names, her eyes finally landed on the beater's. Location: Out of bounds.

Out of bounds? What was that supposed to mean? He was still on her friends list, so he was alive, but how could he possibly be out of bounds?

Her eyes drifted to another name on her friends list. Well…desperate times called for desperate measures. No one else was likely to know what "out of bounds" meant.

Asuna sent Argo a message. [Argo, have you seen Kirito-kun? No one knows where he is.]

Almost instantly she got a message in return. [Lost track of your boyfriend, Aa-chan? I'll tell you for 500 col.]

Asuna scowled at the message window. [It's not like that! There's a boss raid coming up and he's an integral part of DPS.] She attached 500 col to the message before sending. It was an oddly cheap fee for Argo, but she didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth.

[Okay, according to the friends list…] Argo typed back, then paused. Asuna rolled her eyes. Was that why the fee was so cheap? Because it was information she could have gotten herself?

[I already checked that, Argo. It says he's "out of bounds."] She was careful to not tack on "Do you know what that means?" At the end, because Argo would probably charge her for that, too.

Argo took a full minute to respond. [Normally I'd raise my fee by another zero for the trouble, but for you, Aa-chan, I'll make it just 1,000. I'll get my sources on this and get back to you.]

Asuna huffed, sending the Rat the col without verbal complaint. She knew that low fee was too good to be true.

* * *

After Yugi actually managed to defeat the moths with the turtle and exploding fuzzball, they finally made it out of the forest and to what could be the interior of the castle itself. It was more of a cave, really.

"Wow, from creepy forest to creepy cavern, and still no trace of Kaiba and Mokuba." Joey remarked.

Wait, like the Kaiba who designed the game? Why would he be trapped in his own game?

"Hey, do you hear that?" A dull roaring sound echoed through the walls of the cavern.

"There's definitely something up there." Yugi agreed.

A portal—yes, an actual portal—appeared on the ceiling and a dragon's head emerged. It was smoother than the dragon Kirito had fought with Lisbeth, he noticed.

"A blue-eyes!" Yugi announced in astonishment.

Kirito was just opening his menu to equip his second sword (why couldn't mobs just spawn on the ground like normal games?) when two figures dropped from the portal. They landed in a crouch, and stood. One was absurdly tall and wore a coat not unlike his own, while the other was younger (and much shorter) and had long, black hair.

"Kaiba! Mokuba! You're okay!" Joey did the talking, as Kirito was starting to realize was the usual. He relaxed his stance and closed his menu; those two weren't random humanoid mobs dropping from the ceiling like he'd initially thought.

"Joey, you look like an overgrown monkey in that outfit." Was the first thing out of the taller one's mouth.

"Overgrown monkey!" Joey fumed. "That's the thanks I get for coming to rescue—"

Deep, ominous laughter echoed from deeper in the cavern. _Screw it_ , Kirito thought. If things kept interrupting them like this there was bound to be a boss fight soon. Real soon, if the villainous laughter was any indication. _Might as well go all out._ Without further delay, he opened his menu _again_ and finally equipped his second sword, the Dark Repulser.

Yugi blinked as a second sword appeared on the new guy's back. What the—did he just equip a card to himself?! That would make him both a player, because he was able to use cards, _and_ a monster, because if he was able to equip something to himself, then he had attack points, which would explain how he was able to defeat those wasps on his own. But how could someone be both a player and a monster? Unless he was some kind of AI companion character? Just what was he?

But wait, hadn't he said he was from a different game? That would make him a player for sure.

But now wasn't the time for thinking. What had the laughing voice said? That they had reached the final level?

"Correction, you slime ball," Kaiba cut in. "We've beaten the game."

"Oh? Is that what you think, Seto Kaiba?" The voice sounded amused.

 _So that one's_ _Kaiba,_ Kirito thought. They hadn't had time to be introduced.

"That's right; I escaped the lava pool, therefore the dragon wasn't summoned," Kaiba stated angrily, as if saying it firmly would make him right. "That means this game is over!"

Kirito had a bad feeling Kaiba was wrong.

The voice chuckled. "It will be game over alright. But for you, not for us." The cavern around them dissolved until there was nothing around them but a techy-looking floor and ceiling. No walls were in sight.

"What is this?" Joey cried in shock.

"They've rewritten the program! They're summoning the mythic dragon themselves!" True to Kaiba's words, the smoky form of a five-headed dragon dramatically swirled into existence.

Kirito's mouth drew into a grim line. Yup, he knew there was going to be a boss. He drew his swords.

"Alright everyone, stick together." Yugi started. "We'll fight it together, or together we'll fall."

Kirito looked over at Yugi in shock. Yugi seemed like the leader of the group; Didn't he have any sort of plan?!

"Man, I've really had it with this virtual reality stuff," Joey lamented. "Saving Kaiba was one thing, but now we have to deal with a mythic dragon?"

These people had no clue, did they? This dragon looked like it would be a pain, but it wasn't even as big as most bosses were. It looked like it was slow, and the main thing to watch out for was the variety of types in its attacks, if the different types of heads were any indication. _But this isn't SAO,_ Kirito had to remind himself. _Maybe they're not as experienced, but they know more about this game then I do._ If they were afraid, maybe he had reason to be too.

"Suck it up," Kaiba told Joey. "There's only one way to get out of this game."

"I agree," Yugi said. "We need to take this dragon down. Let's go!

While Kirito waited for the boss to attack so he could get a handle on its attack patterns, Mai took initiative. "Me first! I choose my Harpy Lady Sisters!" She held up a card and three harpies emerged with a cry, only to get electrocuted almost as soon as they appeared. "What's happening?!"

"Another little bit of reprogramming we did," The deep voice laughed. "We like to call it the Dragon Seal. Only dragon monsters are allowed to attack." It said smugly.

While the others looks horrified, Kaiba laughed. "You dare challenge _me_ to a battle of dragons? You five should know better than that." He held up another card. "I call the Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"

A blue-tinted dragon materialized in front of Kaiba, the same one whose head Kirito had seen in the portal earlier.

"Only dragons huh?" Joey got over his horror and smirked. "Then I call on Red-Eyes!" A spiky black dragon with glowing red eyes appeared.

As Mai summoned her dragon, Kirito began to wonder why the five-headed monstrosity wasn't attacking yet. No boss politely waited while you readied for the fight. Once you entered the boss room, the fight was on. Something was up.

"And I summon Curse of Dragon!" Yugi called, heralding the appearance of a great big green dragon.

Kirito looked at Mokuba, who was standing behind the others. Didn't he have a dragon?

"Attack!" Came the command from all the dragon tamers. Each dragon had a different breath attack, to which the mythic dragon responded in kind. Kirito didn't dare interfere with so many attacks colliding at once. His level may be high, but he had not built an defense or HP-based avatar. Trying to attack now would be suicide. When the smoke cleared, both sides stood undamaged.

"They must have canceled out when they collided." Yugi mused.

"So they did." The voice agreed, somehow still sounding menacing. "But some of you do not have a dragon with which to attack or defend. Isn't that right, Mokuba?"

Kirito's eyes narrowed in anger. Knowing what was about to happen, he sprinted forward as fast as his speed stat allowed towards the five headed dragon, but as soon as he began charging a sword skill his limbs seized up as he was electrocuted. He fell on his face as his avatar spasmed and sparked.

"Thought you could get around the dragon seal?" The voice laughed as one of the heads charged an attack, "Think again, brat!"

The mythic dragon released its attack straight towards the youngest of the group, but Joey wasn't a talker for nothing.

"Block it, Red-Eyes!"

The dragon obediently flew into the line of fire, taking the attack for Mokuba. It was vaporized instantly.

"But that means—" Yugi started.

 _That means what?_ Kirito thought, only just managing to get up.

Joey's life points fell to zero.

"So long, Yug." He said as he began disappearing into golden sparkles. "I'm done for."

"Don't say that!" Yugi cried desperately.

"Stay with us, please!" Mai begged.

"You can't go." Mokuba added.

Kaiba said nothing.

Joey held up a weak thumbs up before he dissolved completely.

Kirito didn't understand. Why did Joey die when his dragon was destroyed? Were they connected in some way?

Did it matter? Now they were both dead.

Mai rose from where she had fallen on her knees. "You creeps! What kind of sick, twisted game have you turned this into?!"

"Game?" The voice laughed again. "This ceased to be a game long ago."

Kirito was frozen. He was flashing back to the tutorial when Kayaba announced that SAO wasn't just a game anymore. To all the deaths he had seen since. To Diavel, to Sachi, to all the players in boss fights in between.

Sachi.

He saw red.

So he couldn't use sword skills? He didn't need sword skills. He ceased to think as he once again charged the mythic dragon. He was a whirl of deadly blades, not noticing Yugi and the others calling his name, not noticing his swords go through the dragon with no resistance at all. Not noticing that he had no effect, that his game of origin didn't compute with the Big Five's reprogramming.

What he did notice, however, was the heads charging up another attack. He jumped up to the incredible height needed to reach the heads and made a horizontal slash through their necks. But the charging didn't stop. As he began to fall back to the ground, the red daze faded, and he realized that he had done nothing. He heard his name.

As he looked back at the group the attack finished charging. He saw Mai's dragon flying intercept it and ran, determined to make it there first. At the last second he made it between the beam of deadly light and the red dragon. He watched his health tic down by five thousand points; A relatively small percentage of his overall health, and well worth the sacrifice if it saved Mai's life.

But alas, the attack went straight through him, as his own attacks had gone through the dragon.

The Harpy Ladies' Pet Dragon was obliterated, sending Mai's life points to zero.

* * *

 **A/N: I always wanted to continue this crossover sonce I started it, but never thought I'd, you know, _do_ it. I just woke up yesterday and thought, "I want to continue Wrong Floating Castle." And there you have it. The chapter mostly did what it wanted. I had planned on Kirito having more of an impact on the fight, treating the mythic dragon like an SAO boss, but my brain didn't find that realistic or angsty enough apparently. I really hadn't planned on going that dark, (mentioning Sachi or having people "die" despite Kirito's best efforts) but the chapter had a mind of its own, so…**

 **When Asuna was talking to Argo I really wanted to put this in there, but the way I did it in the chapter made more sense.**

 **Asuna: What does it mean by "out of bounds?"**

 **Argo: Your prince is in another castle? I don't know. I'll get my sources on it.**

 **Asuna: Something Argo the Rat doesn't know? What an unusual treat.**

 **Argo: For that, I'm raising my fee to 1,000 col.**


	3. Chapter 3: Divergence

Wrong Floating Castle (A YGO/SAO Crossover)

 **Wooo so I had no idea what to do with this chapter! I sort of screwed over some of my own plans when I made Kirito absolutely useless in the battle with the big five. Woops?**

 **Not only that, but I STILL can't decide what to do with the future of this fic. There's so many options! I could just write them all and have a convoluted web of stories, but that's a little overwhelming to think about. And I'm no good at endings unless they're a Bad End™, so the idea that I'd have to think of endings to every story is just horrifying.**

* * *

Chapter 3: Divergence

 _As he looked back at the group the attack finished charging. He saw Mai's dragon flying intercept it and ran, determined to make it there first. At the last second he made it between the beam of deadly light and the red dragon. He watched his health tic down by five thousand points; A relatively small percentage of his overall health, and well worth the sacrifice if it saved Mai's life._

 _But alas, the attack went straight through him, as his own attacks had gone through the dragon._

 _The Harpy Ladies' Pet Dragon was obliterated, sending Mai's life points to zero._

* * *

Kirito fell to his knees, unable to watch as Mai faded away. Was he just here for appearances' sake alone? He couldn't even interact with the boss!

For someone new to death games, Yugi dealt with Mai's death rather quickly. "Now, Kaiba, this may be our one chance. We have to work as a team!"

"No way!" Kaiba disagreed. "You don't even know what you're doing!"

"You just have to trust me, Kaiba!" Yugi insisted.

"I don't have to do anything, Yugi. I can win this battle my own way." Kaiba stubbornly declared.

Kirito was about to intervene, because arguing during a boss fight was a one-way ticket to death, but the menacing voice beat him to the punch. "You'll win nothing! You've already lost two. Now we'll make it three!" The Mythic Dragon charged another attack.

"Call out your ultimate dragon!" Yugi commanded the stubborn Kaiba.

"Seto!" Mokuba cried before Kaiba could argue, "It's not your dragon they're attacking; it's you!" He leapt towards his brother, intent on taking his place.

Kirito saw what was about to happen. He saw it, and he couldn't do anything about it. That wasn't about to stop him from trying, however.

Using his superior speed, the swordsman kicked off the ground and practically flew to Mokuba, knocking him and Kaiba both out of the line of fire. He took five thousand damage, but he paid it no mind. He was still in the green.

Of course, the attack continued through him, hitting Kaiba's Blue-Eyes. It didn't stand a chance.

"Kaiba!"

"Big Brother!"

Kirito wanted to punch the ground. (So he did.) Of course it didn't work. He couldn't just have one good thing without something going wrong, could he?

"You better not Screw this up, Yugi," Kaiba said as he faded away. "Keep Mokuba safe! You hear me?"

Mokuba tried to hug him, but he was gone. "Seto…"

Yugi's face was one of pure shock before it dawned on him: he had failed utterly and totally. He came here to this virtual world to save Kaiba, and now not only was he dead, but he took their only hope for victory with him. Without him, they were all going to die. No monster they could come up with would be able to beat the Mythic Dragon, and Kirito couldn't take damage for them forever.

Mokuba passed the first stage of grief quickly, as the evidence was too clear to deny: Seto was gone. That led to the next step: anger.

The younger Kaiba whirled on Kirito. "I could've saved him! If it weren't for you it would've been me!"

Kirito spoke softly. "I think Kaiba would rather it be him than you, Mokuba. Trust—"

"You don't know what my brother wanted!" Mokuba interrupted. "You don't know him, he doesn't know you. I certainly don't! It's not like you've been useful anyway." The last part was muttered.

Kirito did his best to ignore the jab. "I know that much, trust me. It's a big brother thing."

Mokuba didn't reply.

Kirito turned his attention to Yugi, whom he hadn't heard a word from since Kaiba died. "You said you had a plan, right?"

Yugi snapped back to awareness. "Not anymore. My plan needed Kaiba to succeed."

"With his Ultimate Dragon?" What was that, anyway, and why hadn't Kaiba summoned it in the first place?

Yugi nodded. "I was going to use polymerization to combine my Black Luster Soldier with his Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon to create an unstoppable monster, more powerful than even the mythic dragon. But with Kaiba gone…" He couldn't finish.

"Aww," The voice of the Big Five mocked. "Finally realizing that you have no chance of winning?"

"You underestimate us!" Kirito responded. The others may have given up, but there had to be some way to win this. He wasn't going to die in a game he shouldn't even be in to an enemy he didn't know.

"And who are you, hm? A wayward NPC? An AI monster? A hack? For all your showmanship you haven't been able to do much, have you?"

They were baiting him, he just knew it. They were trying to make him use a sword skill and get electrocuted again, thus taking taking him out of the picture so he couldn't try to save anyone else…which meant they were about to attack.

"I'll show you what I can do." Kirito murmured. Louder, he directed his next question to Yugi. "Yugi! Do you think that polymerization card would work on me?" It was time to take some risks if they wanted to make it out of this alive.

Yugi caught on to what Kirito was thinking, his hope rekindling. "I don't know, you're not part of the system. But I have to believe it will work."

"That's enough out of you two. Let's end this, shall we?" The Big Five put an end to the boys' planning, the Mythic Dragon charging yet another breath attack.

No time to lose. "Go, Polymerization!" Yugi held up the card and Kirito and the Curse of Dragon started to glow. Kirito felt his avatar changing, flickering in some places. His avatar and the dragon fused together in one bright light before fading, leaving him standing on the dragon's snout.

So…nothing really changed? Except his location. That was weird. He could only hope that since he had technically fused with the dragon that he would both be classified as a dragon monster and be able to interact with the mythic dragon.

Only one way to find out.

Kirito held his breath (not that breathing really mattered in the virtual world, but it was reflex) and activated a sword skill. As his swords began to glow, the Mythic Dragon released its attack. Kirito and the green dragon crouched as one before leaping to meet the beam of energy, powering through it and getting within striking distance of the five-headed dragon.

Not knowing if it was really necessary since only half the new monster was his, Yugi commanded, "Attack, Curse of Swordsman!"

As if permission was all he needed, Kirito released his signature sword skill, "Starburst Stream!" The system assist kicked in, (despite not being in the right system) controlling his movements to always land on-target.

Mokuba and Yugi watched in awe. So this was Kirito's true power?

The sixteen-hit combo executed almost flawlessly, save for one problem: Kirito and the Curse of Dragon were glitching. His movements were jerky, the sound effects weren't synced with his hits, and sometimes parts of him would disappear entirely, flickering in and out of existence. It was with no small amount of relief that Kirito finished the combo, stepping back as smoothly as his glitching movements would allow.

The Mythic Dragon froze, before exploding into shards of light.

"What?!" The voice sounded panicked. "That's not possible! Curse of Dragon could never fuse to be powerful enough to take down the Mythic Dragon!"

Kirito smirked, opening his menu with a flickering hand. He pulled up his stats and toggled the view mode to "all." "I'm sure you'll find my attack stat to be more than sufficient to take down your dragon."

"What?! How can that be? What are you?!" Was the last thing they heard before the very world shattered, sending swordsman, duelist, dragon and child falling into an abyss of black.

* * *

Kirito awoke to the sounds of cheering. That was strange; No one had cheered for him since the first floor. He opened his eyes, finding himself on a raised stone platform with Yugi and Mokuba in front of a massive crowd. He wasn't glitching anymore, so that was good.

"What is this?" Yugi murmured.

"You saved us!" A voice shouted above the rest of the crowd. "You slew the dragon!"

"Our heroes!" A new voice sounded from behind them. Kirito turned around to find a female Mokuba-lookalike. Who was this now? Couldn't he just be done meeting new people and go home?

He decided to ignore the fact that he called Aincrad home.

"What you have done will keep us and our land safe forever more." The girl continued.

"We're not the ones you should be cheering," Yugi said seriously.

"Seto!" Was all Mokuba managed to choke out.

"Fear not." The girl comforted. "The losses you've suffered are too great for any hero to bear, no matter how strong they are." What kind of consolation was that?

With a happy-sounding laugh, the girl stepped back and began to glow. Her shape changed, and when the light died a much taller figure stood in her place. The now blue-skinned girl began to chant an otherworldly song.

"Remarkable!" Yugi exclaimed. "The princess is actually the Mystical Elf! She's casting a spell to bring our friends back!"

What the what? That was a thing? Kirito once again had to remind himself that this wasn't SAO anymore. Magic was a thing here.

Right before their eyes, all those that were lost since Kirito joined Yugi and his friends appeared on the ground, even the little fairy, Earu. None of the destroyed monsters returned, however. Kirito wondered what was different about the fairy than the other monsters. Was it because she had a proper name?

"Seto!" Mokuba ran to his brother in tears, tacking him in a hug. The crowd's cheering intensified at the cute scene.

Yugi ran over to Joey and Mai, celebrating, leaving Kirito standing with the Mystical Elf.

She looked at him, her eyes kinder than he expected out of an NPC. "You wish to ask me something?" It was more a statement than a question.

How did she know? "Does your power extend to Aincrad? My friends…" he didn't know how to continue. He had lost so many friends. Not that he ever had that many, but the point still stood.

"You speak of the other world in the sky? I'm afraid my power cannot breach the rift above the monster field. I have no more power over that world than I do the real one. I'm sorry." The Mystical Elf had a gentle way about her, but the words still hurt. Kirito nodded, knowing that it was too much to hope for.

A rift appeared behind the elf.

"The exit portal. Let's go Mokuba." Kaiba and his little brother walked towards the portal.

"Hey!" Joey stepped forward. "Don't you think the very least you could do is say thank you or something?"

Kaiba ignored him. A second longer, and they were gone.

"He's a pretty cheery guy, huh?" Mai remarked. Joey just growled.

"Thank you, our heroes." The Mystical Elf bid them farewell. "Your brave deeds will always be remembered here."

"And we will always remember all of you." Yugi replied. The three made for the portal, with a, "Good-bye!" And, "See ya!" Thrown over their shoulders.

Yugi stopped them though as something occurred to him. "Are you coming Kirito?"

Kirito hesitated. "I need to get back to Aincrad. I can't just leave everyone there to die."

"Hold up." Mai tilted her head in a thinking sort of fashion. "Are you the reason they're trapped?"

Why would somebody ask that? "No."

"Are you their only hope of getting out?"

"Of course not!"

Mai shrugged. "Then it sounds to me like it isn't your problem."

"Yeah!" Joey added. "Didn't you call that place a prison earlier? Why would you want to go back?"

"Kirito," Yugi got his attention. "You said before that you've been trapped in SAO for a year. What would you do now that you couldn't do in a year? Maybe you'll be of more use on the outside."

It was that argument that got Kirito thinking. They were already halfway to the top of Aincrad, so they'd made good progress in that year, but the floors were only getting harder. Besides, if Yugi and his friends left, Kirito would have no way back to Aincrad because he didn't know how to summon those card monsters. What use was he so far below the castle?

But at the same time, what if leaving the virtual world triggered his nervegear? There was really no telling what was going to happen if he stepped through that portal. Maybe he would wake up in the hospital of his own real world (for surely there were two versions of the "real world": Yugi's and his. Both games claimed to be the first virtual reality, and neither one had heard of the other.) and be able to see his family again. Or maybe he'd end up in Yugi's real world, out of place and far, far from home. Or maybe he would cease to exist altogether, his mind unable to travel through a portal in the wrong world and his body still comatose in his own.

Or maybe nothing would happen at all, and he would be stuck here, in this unfamiliar game, forever.

Kirito made his decision.

He stepped through the portal.

* * *

 **A/N: I can't believe I wrote "Believe in the heart of the cards" with my own two thumbs. I am so much trash. (The phrase was removed during editing, but the fact is that it was there** _ **at one time,**_ **and that's all that matters.)**

 **So killing off Kaiba instead of Mokuba got rid of some of his character development, but it was the only way I could make Kirito useful at all, and I really wanted him to be the one to defeat the Mythic Dragon for some reason. Probably to make up for how useless he was for the rest of the battle.**

 **Also, I have exactly four ideas for where this story will go. I'm reeeally debating to which ones to write, because I'm not really sure how any of them end for sure and they would all be their own adventures. PM me if you want to help me out! Or maybe adopt an idea?**


End file.
